OKLAHOMA CITY (March 8, 2020) – With about one-fourth of its roster sidelined this weekend due to illness and injury, Oklahoma Christian needed players to come through during a big weekend baseball series against regionally ranked Arkansas-Fort Smith.

On Sunday afternoon, it was the turn of Michael DiFiore and the bullpen to do so. DiFiore drove in five runs with a pair of home runs and the bullpen combination of Carter Hines and Noah Bates stifled the Lions over the final three innings, allowing OC to rally for an 11-9 win at a windy Dobson Field.

OC (9-13, 9-13 Lone Star Conference) took the four-game series three games to one, rallying in its final at-bat for each win against UAFS (13-9, 13-9), which is ranked seventh in the region. The Eagles received contributions – some big, some little – from up and down their lineup, something that pleased Cobble.

"It created depth. Guys stepped up," Cobble said. "That's unusual to go without so many key players and do so well. We put ourselves in a better position than we were in a week ago. With all the adversity we faced this week, to get three wins, I'm ecstatic. These guys don't quit. They play hard."

Arkansas-Fort Smith had 13 hits and scored in each of its first six times at bat. The Lions led 9-5 after the top of the sixth inning, but Hines (1-0) and Bates held them without a hit the rest of the way, allowing time for their teammates to rally.

Blake Empkey and Grant Lake hit run-scoring singles in the bottom of the sixth, making it 9-7. In the eighth, Jordan Kennedy drew a leadoff walk and eventually scored on a perfectly executed squeeze bunt by Abe Spencer, pulling the Eagles within 9-8.

Empkey doubled to left-center field to lead off the eighth, prompting the Lions to turn to closer Foster Pace (3-1). Pace walked Lake before DiFoire, a left-handed batter, hit his second opposite-field homer of the game to put the Eagles ahead. DiFiore had hit a two-run homer in the first inning as part of a 3-for-5 outing on a day he almost didn't play because he felt ill in the morning, but decided to give it a go.

"For a team that's battled the flu this week, you have to give it up to our trainers, who are trying to keep everybody healthy," Cobble said.

In the ninth, Hines struck out the Lions' first two batters before hitting Morgan Crenshaw with a pitch. Bates came on to strike out pinch-hitter Logan Cotton to pick up his second save of the series.

"I was really proud of Hayden Boyd coming in and giving up only one earned run and of what Hines and Bates did," Cobble said. "It was such a tough day to pitch. We knew it was going to be high-scoring and we knew if our offense could keep putting up runs, eventually we were hoping to stop them and we did."

The Eagles will play a four-game series at Eastern New Mexico starting on Friday and will return home for a four-game series against Texas-Permian Basin that will start on March 20.